Dr. Harvey Koeppel
Executive Director
IBM Center For CIO Leadership

As Manager Market Research for Syncsort, Richard Pilkington is responsible for driving research and product management efforts. This includes product strategy, messaging/positioning, sales process/training, customer/market analyses, and partnership/alliance development. Previously, Mr. Pilkington was Global Operations Manager in the Operations and Systems Group of AIG’s International Property and Casualty Division. He was also one of the key architects in driving the design and deployment of new product development and service delivery models across a network of 138 offices in 98 countries.

Mr. Pilkington has over 19 years of experience during which time he has held positions as principal for a management consultancy, COO for a mid-size insurance company, and large scale technology deployment manager for a major US-based financial services company. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a joint masters degree in their School of International Affairs and School of Arts & Sciences. Mr. Pilkington also holds a joint Bachelors Degree in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research from Columbia’s School of Engineering and Columbia College.